New pitching coach Alon Leichman stood in the hallway outside the Rockies clubhouse at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick and smiled when asked to describe the mood of this year’s squad early in camp.

“We in la-la land right now,” Leichman told The Denver Gazette, who worked last season as the assistant pitching coach for the Miami Marlins. “No one has had a bad outing yet.”

One of the beautiful things about spring training is that hope springs eternal for all 30 MLB teams. That includes the Rockies, looking for ways to shed the memories of a 119-loss season that was brought on in part by a pitching staff that imploded in historic ways.

The 1,021 runs allowed by the Rockies in 2025 were the second-most in franchise history behind the 1999 club, which surrendered 1,028. Before last season, no MLB team had allowed 1,000 runs or more in a season since the 1999 Rockies.

Colorado’s overall ERA (5.97) and starter ERA (6.65) were both the highest of any MLB team  while its bullpen ERA (5.12) finished as the second-highest behind the Washington Nationals (5.59).

That 6.65 ERA from the Rockies’ starters, by the way, was the highest single-season starter ERA in major league history.

Those head-shaking numbers are just some of the reasons why Leichman was brought in, along with assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas, bullpen coach Matt Buschmann and director of pitching Matt Daniels to overhaul Colorado’s pitching philosophy. It’s also a reason why the Rockies were looking to add starters this offseason and did just that with veteran acquisitions Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano.

While manager Warren Schaeffer is emphatic that the team doesn’t look back on what was a nightmarish season, it’s also important to have a baseline to build off on the pitching side of things to be able to see improvement.

“It’s been good. It’s been fun,” Leichman said of getting to know his group of pitchers in Scottsdale. “Guys have been learning new routines. We’ve been stressing workload stuff and even how we want them to play catch. We are experimenting with new pitches and new grips and then they take it to lives (live batting).”

Rockies fans will see those experiments in real time … and sometimes they will go awry in spring training. In Colorado’s initial game of the spring, Nolan Arenado hit his first home run as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks off a sweeper thrown by former teammate Antonio Senzatela. The sweeper is a new pitch that Senzatela is working to incorporate into his 2026 pitch mix.

“It didn’t matter leaving one up to Nolan right there,” Schaeffer said after the game. “He (Senzatela) is working on all of his pitches. Getting ahead in the strike zone early, he did all of that. He did exactly what we wanted him to do today.”

That’s a reminder of what spring is, a chance for pitchers to ignore the ERA and get a feel for what works and what doesn’t before the Rockies open the season on March 27 in Miami.

Leichman wants pitchers in camp this spring to take the lessons learned into the season, whether they start the year with the Rockies or in the minor leagues, and build off them. While it may be okay to ignore the statistics, not learning from those mistakes is not an option.

“Our job here is to make them believe in what we’re telling them,” Leichman said. “So when they do get punched in the face, they still will feel that way.”

In what way? Like they’re still in la-la land?

“Yes, because la-la land ends when the season starts,” Leichman said.

And that’s when the reality of putting 2025 in the past begins.

Injury updates

Reliever Pierson Ohl, acquired in a January trade with the Minnesota Twins, will miss the 2026 season after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He will undergo Tommy John surgery.

Starter Kyle Freeland has been dealing with mid-back spasms and will begin throwing later this week.

Infielder/outfielder Tyler Freeman is considered day-to-day with a low back strain and has started doing on-field work.

Outfielder Mickey Moniak is battling right oblique tightness but has been doing live batting practice. He should return to game action later this week.